The Medicinal Herb Info site was created to help educate visitors about the often forgotten wisdom of the old ways of treating illnesses. Many of today's drugs and medicines were originally derived from natural ingredients, combinations of plants and other items found in nature.

We are not suggesting that you ignore the help of trained medical professionals, simply that you have additional options available for treating illnesses. Often the most effective treatment involves a responsible blend of both modern and traditional treatments.

Asarum Europaeum
Asarum is a perennial, evergreen plant; a low plant with a horizontal, creeping rootstock and prostrate stem. Two long-petioled, upright, shiny, leathery, dark green leaves grow from each bud on the stem, rising from 2-4 inches above the ground. The large, solitary flowers appear from March to May and are characterized by a green-brown color on the outside, reddish-black on the inside.

Asarum canadense L.Asarum canadense is a perennial plant; the knobby, root of the plant is round and fleshy, with dividing stem supporting a heart-shaped, deep green above and a light green below, soft, woolly and handsomely veined leaf, there being two to a plant. A single flower is small and brownish-purple, growing only a few inches high and covered by the dead leaves that carpet the woods. The taste is pungent and bitter.Back to Top

Asarum Europaeum – Basic use is emetic. It is mixed with lance-leaf plantain to stop mucus congestion in the nose and respiratory passages. Asarum is too dangerous to be used without medical supervision.

Asarum canadense L. – Used as an appetite stimulant. Externally, used to ease the pains of gout, remove freckles, as a poultice for snakebite, colds, whooping cough, headache, dysmenorrhea, hysteria, typhus, alcoholism, dropsy, ague, and fevers. Used by Native Americans as a ginger substitute for its flavor.Back to Top

Herbal Gardening, compiled by The Robison York State Herb Garden, Cornell Plantations, Matthaei Botanical Gardens of the University of Michigan, University of California Botanical Garden, Berkeley., Pantheon Books, Knopf Publishing Group, New York, 1994, first edition